That process starts each morning with his simple but effective
twist on the standard to-do list.

Chesky explained his technique to Greylock investor and LinkedIn
founder and chairman Reid Hoffman for
an episode of Hoffman's podcast "Masters of Scale."

Make a list of everything you want to accomplish that day. Be
as exhaustive as possible.

Group a few similar tasks together.

Ask yourself for each group: What one action takes care of
all of these? "It's like a game of leverage," Chesky said.

Repeat the grouping and refining process until you have just
a few big tasks.

"If you have a list of 20 things to do, you end up
realizing, 'I don't need to do 20 things,'" Chesky said. "If I do
these three big things, the other 20 things will kind of happen
as outcomes, or outputs, of it."

Chesky's strategy
is similar to the way "Shark Tank" investor Barbara Corcoran
grades all of her personal and business tasks. She gives each
point a letter grade from A to F, and then makes a list of only
the As. Then, she gives each of those a grade, with a much
tougher lens, and she only works toward accomplishing the ones
that get the final A grade. She recommends the technique to all
of the new entrepreneurs she works with, who are learning
how to live with responsibilities that could easily overtake
their lives.